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Stanley Fish finds Sarah Palin's book "compelling and very well done."

Unlike compulsive Sarah haters ? like Andrew Sullivan and Michelle Goldberg ? Fish looks at the book as the form of literature it is, an autobiography:

[W]hile autobiographers certainly insist that they are telling the truth, the truth the genre promises is the truth about themselves ? the kind of persons they are ? and even when they are being mendacious or self-serving (and I don?t mean to imply that Palin is either), they are, necessarily, fleshing out that truth. As I remarked in a previous column, autobiographers cannot lie because anything they say will truthfully serve their project, which, again, is not to portray the facts, but to portray themselves.

Since "Going Rogue" is "satisfying and artful" and shows us what Palin is really like, it succeeds. Fish, an expert on literary art, explains the "architectonic structure" of the book in some detail. Go read that.

Now, what's especially cool about Fish's essay is that he confronts the smugness of his readers, the NYT readers. Instead of the chummy, we-hate-Sarah chatter that defines the liberal/lefty blogosphere, Fish slaps his friends in the face. You think you can write this lady off? You're idiots ? he says, in so many words:

Do I believe any of [what Palin has written]? It doesn?t matter. What matters is that she does, and that her readers feel they are hearing an authentic voice. I find the voice undeniably authentic... It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety. It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (?An American life is an extraordinary life.?) It says, don?t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustains us? And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and ?kept walking.?

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin?s character. It?s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn?t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go ?off script,? to ?go rogue.?...

The message is clear. America can?t be stopped. I can?t be stopped. I?ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again.

So look out, you smug fools.  She's real. Like Reagan was real.

Here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. Family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustains us....

Full post as published by Althouse on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).